{"id":311075,"date":"2026-01-05T12:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=311075"},"modified":"2026-01-01T07:12:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T07:12:06","slug":"knesset-passes-law-blocking-provision-of-electricity-and-water-to-unrwa-facilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/01\/knesset-passes-law-blocking-provision-of-electricity-and-water-to-unrwa-facilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Knesset Passes Law Blocking Provision of Electricity and Water to UNRWA Facilities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A Palestinian woman walks past a damaged wall bearing the UNRWA logo at a camp for internally displaced persons in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on 28 May 2024.
[Eyad Baba \/AFP]<\/p><\/div>\n

Israel has alleged that more than 10 percent of the UN Palestinian refugee agency\u2019s staff in Gaza have ties to terror groups.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

29 Dec 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0A law prohibiting the provision of electricity or water to facilities owned by or operated on behalf of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, passed its third and final reading 59-7 in the Knesset today.<\/p>\n

The government-backed legislation<\/a> requires electricity and water providers to withhold or disconnect service from UNRWA facilities, as well as block the provision of communications and banking or financial services to the agency.<\/p>\n

UNRWA \u2014 the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East \u2014 provides education, health care and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.<\/p>\n

The measure is an amendment to two bills<\/a> passed by lawmakers in October 2024, barring the agency from operating in Israeli territory and curtailing its activities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by banning state authorities from having any contact with it.<\/p>\n

The law clarifies that the provision of electrical and water services should be considered \u201ccontact\u201d under the law.<\/p>\n

The legislation also allows the government to seize properties in Ma\u2019alot Dafna and Kafr Aqab in Jerusalem, which had been leased to UNRWA by the state and used as the agency\u2019s offices, \u201cwithout the need to initiate legal or administrative proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Illustrative: Israeli soldiers capture a subterranean Hamas data center underneath UNRWA\u2019s headquarters in Gaza City, February 8, 2024. (Emanuel Fabian\/Times of Israel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The agency continued to operate<\/a> for some time after the original bills\u2019 passage, but its schools in East Jerusalem were eventually ordered shuttered<\/a>. Israeli police raided<\/a> UNRWA\u2019s offices in the capital earlier this month, lowering the United Nations flag and raising an Israeli flag in its place.<\/p>\n

Addressing the Knesset, Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Boaz Bismuth (Likud) declared that \u201cUNRWA employees were full partners in the brutal massacre they committed against us on October 7. They assisted, murdered and kidnapped. In practice, UNRWA is an arm of Hamas. Terrorists in disguise under the auspices of the UN.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel has alleged that more than 10 percent of UNRWA\u2019s staff in Gaza have ties to terror groups, and that educational facilities under the organization\u2019s auspices consistently incite hatred of Israel and glorify terror.<\/p>\n

In February 2024, the IDF revealed the existence of a subterranean Hamas data center directly beneath UNRWA\u2019s Gaza Strip headquarters. The IDF has also repeatedly targeted Hamas command centers and gunmen hiding out in UNRWA schools.<\/p>\n

Freed hostage Emily Damari said after returning<\/a> to Israel that she was held in captivity in UNRWA schools and facilities, a claim the agency said it took \u201cextremely seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, some Israeli politicians and officials saw the relief that the agency provided as a means of keeping the Gaza Strip, and parts of the West Bank, from deeper poverty and thus greater violence and terrorism.<\/p>\n

Rejecting Israeli allegations, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion<\/a> in October asserting that Israel is legally obligated to allow the agency to provide humanitarian aid in Gaza, and stating that the provision of aid to the Strip during the war there has been inadequate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Israeli police and officials hang an Israeli flag on the UNRWA compound in East Jerusalem, December 8, 2025. (AP Photo\/Mahmoud Illean)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The court dismissed Israel\u2019s main argument for its legislation blocking UNRWA\u2019s operations \u2014 that the organization is no longer impartial or neutral due to its \u201cinfiltration\u201d by the Hamas terror group \u2014 stating that there was no evidence UNRWA breached the impartiality requirements under Article 59 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which it said related to discrimination in the provision of humanitarian aid and services.<\/p>\n

The advisory opinion, which is not legally binding, was issued by 10 votes to one, with court Vice President Julia Sebutinde dissenting and writing that the court did not \u201csufficiently consider\u201d Hamas\u2019s infiltration of UNRWA, and stating that there is \u201cno obligation to assist UN agencies acting contrary to the Charter\u2019s principles,\u201d or work with any specific organization.<\/p>\n

The UN General Assembly endorsed<\/a> the court\u2019s view earlier this month.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – timesofisrael.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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